About the MTPRF

The Molly Towell Perinatal Research Foundation was established in 1988 as a legacy of the estate of Dr Molly Towell. Dr Towell was a pioneering clinician-scientist in the field of maternal-fetal medicine and had a particular interest in the influence of maternal nutrition on infant outcomes. This was many years prior to the seminal works of Barker, which gave birth to the current concepts of the developmental origins of health and disease. For more about Dr Towell, see “About Molly Towell”.

MAJOR OBJECTIVES OF THE MTPRF

Dr Towell instructed that the major objectives of the Molly Towell Perinatal Research Foundation were:

To provide funding of graduate and undergraduate fellowships for students in the field of fetal and neonatal medicine

To provide start-up operating funds to assist in research and education in the field of fetal and neonatal medicine

About Funding

The overall goal of the Molly Towell Perinatal Research Foundation is to encourage perinatal research in Canada. According to Dr. Towell’s direction, the Foundation will support original and innovative research, which she defined as the pursuit of new information derived from basic or clinical research. High priority is given to projects that concern fetal growth or metabolism but any studies that involve original research in fetal or neonatal medicine will be considered. However, purely epidemiological research or clinical trials will not be considered.

Applications for Funding

The directions for submitting applications are provided on the appropriate forms. Please note that there are separate forms for requesting assistance for operating funds and fellowships.

Important dates for 2018:

Application Deadline: April 20th, 2018.

Decision & Notification: mid-June 2018

Funding provided by: mid-July 2018

Funding Application Deadline

Announcement of 2018 MTPRF Competition Winners

There were a record number of applications in 2018 for the Foundation Fellowship and New Investigator awards. Because of the increased application pressure, the Board elected to provide two Fellowship awards and one New Investigator award. Applications were received from 12 universities spanning Canada from coast to coast. The Board of Directors of the Foundation is pleased to announce the following winners.

The recipients of the MTPRF Fellowships were Dr. Flore Lesage at the University of Ottawa and Dr. Laura Reyes Martinez at the University of Alberta. The recipient of the New Investigator award is Dr. Souvik Mitra at Dalhousie University.

Dr. Lesage is a graduate of KU Leuven in Belgium, where she also completed a Masters and a Ph.D. degree. She currently is a post-doctoral fellow at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute under the direction of Dr. Bernard Thebaud. Her studies focus on the role of endothelial cell colony forming (ECFC)-based therapy in promoting lung growth and preventing/rescuing neonatal pulmonary hypertension in neonatal rats and piglets.

Dr. Reyes Martinez graduated from the Universidad de Santander UDES in Colombia and completed a Ph.D. under the supervision of Dr. Sandra Davidge at the University of Alberta. She currently is a post-doctoral Fellow with Dr. Margie Davenport at the University of Alberta. Her studies will investigate the role of chemoreflex activity/sensitivity in pregnant women and its potential role in the development or treatment of preeclampsia.

The Board of the MTPRF is proud to support these outstanding researchers and wishes them rapid progress with their studies.

About Molly Towell

Molly Towell was a pioneer in the field of perinatology in Canada, whose contributions in fetal physiology and in patient care have had a lasting impact.

She was born in Sussex, England and graduated from the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine in London in 1952. Following house officer positions in England in medicine, surgery, and obstetrics, she came to Canada in 1955 to accept a position as a rotating intern at St. Joseph’s Hospital in London, Ontario.

During 1956 and 1957, she was Ship’s Surgeon on the Columbia Coast mission boat operated by the Anglican Church, serving approximately 3500 people in widely scattered fishing and logging camps, fish canneries, lighthouses, and Native villages along the British Columbia coast. Her detailed diary, now housed in the B.C. Archives in Victoria, captures a glimpse of the lives of the isolated workers and their families to whom she became a counsellor and a friend… read more

About Funding

The directions for submitting applications are provided on the appropriate forms. Please note that there are separate forms for requesting assistance for operating funds and fellowships.

Important dates for this year:

Application Deadline: April 17th, 2015.

Decision & Notification: June 15th, 2015

Funding provided by mid July, 2015.

The overall goal of the Molly Towell Perinatal Research Foundation is to encourage perinatal research in Canada. According to Dr. Towell’s direction, the Foundation will support original and innovative research, which she defined as the pursuit of new information derived from basic or clinical research. High priority is given to projects that concern fetal growth or metabolism but any studies that involve original research in fetal or neonatal medicine will be considered. However, purely epidemiological research or clinical trials will not be considered.